The Core 2 Quad Q6600 slots right below the current king-of-the-hill Core 2 Extreme QX6700 which launched two months ago. It’s clocked slightly lower at 2.4 GHz and features 1066 MHz front-side bus. L2 cache size remains at 8MB like the Core 2 Extreme X6800. Pricing will be $851 per unit in 1,000 unit quantities with a price drop to $530 expected in Q2’2007. Online retailer ZipZoomFly currently has the Core 2 Quad Q6600 in stock for $989.99.

Intel
Kentsfield
Xeon

Processor
Number

Core
Frequency

Bus
Frequency

Launch Price

Q2'07

X3220

2.40GHz

1066MHz

$851

$530

X3210

2.13GHz

1066MHz

$690

$425

Joining the current Xeon 3000 series of processors are the new quad-core Xeon X3200 series. These processors are based on the same Kentsfield core as the Core 2 Quad and quad-core Core 2 Extreme processors. The Xeon X3220 will be identical to the Core 2 Quad Q6600 albeit with Xeon branding. Slotted right below the Xeon X3220 is the X3210 which is clocked at 2.13 GHz. This model retains the same 1066 MHz front-side bus and 8MB of L2 cache as the other Kentsfield based processors.

Pricing for the Xeon X3220 is identical to the Core 2 Quad Q6600 at $851 per unit in 1,000 unit quantities with an expected price drop to $530 in Q2’2007. The lower clocked Xeon X3210 is priced at $690 per unit per 1,000 unit quantities with an expected price drop to $425 in Q2’2007.

In addition, Intel's single-core Allendale E4300 will also make its debut this week.

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This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

But that upcoming price drop? That'll make it a beauty, I think, and probably the gold-standard part for enthusiast computer. Decent price point, slower single-core performance but quad core at that price makes it sweet. Add to that the C2D's nice OC record, and.. there ya go.

I'll probably get an E6600, OC it, then when the price drops on that later in the year, make the swap. Especially if I can start recording HDTV in Vista (through legal means or not, since apparently only pre-builts will be able to, and pre-builts are for women and the lazy).